Currently, America is experiencing "a government shut-down." In theory, everyone understands what that means. In practice, no one does. In theory, our vast masthead of protection and laws closes for a period for reflection (and fiscal responsibility). In practice, our everyone with any tie at all to a government career is furloughed, but who even knows what the aristocracy is up to. At least airport security is still up––any way we can speed up those lines?
The last act of government officials was to barricade many areas of public interest: federal parks, the WWII Veterans Memorial. The news covered the outrage over this already, and the reactions of the WWII veterans. They stormed the beaches at Normandy, so they knocked over the barriers at the Memorial (government high-quality stuff, mind you) to get in. Kudos to them.
The situation escalates over time however. A woman was just shot by officials––her infant in the car––after she tried to ram through the White House barricades. Admittedly, the guards could not have known that she had her child with her. She suffered from mental instabilities, says the news: post-partum depression, recent head trauma. Perhaps she is not the most symbolic of the times. Yet, she does say something. She did ram something. She was shot (for good reason; she was in a car, headed toward the White House; even there wasn't a shutdown, that gate would have been locked––but the shutdown).
Here's what I REALLY hope happens. Imagine this iconic scene, in the history books for years: a bunch of citizens (in wheelchairs, since that's most of us nowadays) storm the White House. Someone plays "At the Barricade"and the all roll into the saw horses. Bam. Our calendars have the mark "American Bastille Day." Some random guy gets a rubber bullet welt that bleeds a little bit. We can finally acknowledge Jefferson: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots."
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